Heat waves are becoming more common, severe and long-lasting.
Heat waves are becoming more common, severe and long-lasting. These prolonged periods of hot weather are especially dangerous in already hot places like Texas. In 2023, more than 300 people in Texas died from heat, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services, the most since the state began tracking such deaths in 1989. Researchers found it may not only be temperatures that make heat waves unsafe but also the heat-related increase in airborne pollutants.
Bianca Pamela Aridjis-Olivos, a graduate student in aerosol and atmospheric chemistry at Texas A&M University will present her team’s results at the fall meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). ACS Fall 2025 is being held Aug. 17-21; it features about 9,000 presentations on a range of science topics.
In 2023, as intense heat raged across Texas, Aridjis-Olivos started working with faculty mentor Renyi Zhang and colleagues in the Center for Atmospheric Chemistry and the Environment (CACE) at Texas A&M. Because heat waves are predicted to worsen across the U.S. in the next few years, the CACE team was motivated to determine how extreme heat impacts atmospheric chemistry and air quality.
The researchers designed and conducted a pilot study of atmospheric chemistry during Texas’ August 2024 heat wave. They collected air samples throughout the day and night from Aug. 5 to Sept. 3 on the university campus in College Station, TX, where temperatures ranged from 90 to 106 degrees Fahrenheit (32 to 41 degrees Celsius). Additionally, the air sampling occurred when there were no wildfires nearby, isolating the effects of the heat wave itself without the influence of wildfire smoke on air quality.
Read More: American Chemical Society
Photo Credit: Peyesces via Pixabay
